Since you seem to be taking requests, and chance of updating the .mkv file to the current version (as seen on the iso's)?

I know you don't want too many versions out there, but updating the mkv would actually make things consistent across the board and insure than everyone has the "final" version from here on out.

Anyway, lovely work, I've been spreading the word in every forum I participate in.

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Dustin

8/31/2016 06:29:55 am

Hello Mr. Bond. Thank you for your service to the Crown and stuff. There's really not much difference between the digital copy and the ISOs, other than some slight color correction adjustments. IE...not enough for me to export a whole new 4-hour video file and upload it!

This also gives an incentive for folks to download the Bluray/DVD ISOs...I put a good deal of work into those menus and the quality of the Bluray particularly is worth the large download size!

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Bond. James Bond.

8/31/2016 07:06:41 am

No worries, I thought you might say something like that. :)

My only problem with the ISO's (and I have downloaded them) is that I package them in a joined mkv and play them on my set top box, I don't burn them to disc. Unfortunately, when you merge the two parts together, you get the "Insert disc two" (or whatever it is) message between the parts, which kills all the beauty of the intermission. :) But I do like the higher bitrate.

In any event, that's getting too much into the weeds for your comment section here. Really love what you did, it's my "go to" Hobbit. There are a couple things I would have done differently (i.e. eliminate the barrel battle and Smaug cat & mouse altogether), but by far yours is the best fan edit out there, in terms of content and technical quality. Congrats on getting on Fanedit!

hobbitfan

9/1/2016 10:56:05 pm

I LOVE the book of The Hobbit. I've almost every year since I was very young. I went to the theatre, expecting a great new adaptation of the book, and then... fail. They got so much stuff wrong.

Sure, I didn't mind Bilbo not being with the Dwarves when the Goblins captured them (it was better that way cinematically), but other changes were just padding. It was so disappointing that when I saw the other two films I had to forget about the book, in order to enjoy them for their own merits. But they were still so disappointing that I preferred the 1977 animated version over them.

Your fanedit is superb! The cuts in the movie were nearly flawless. If I hadn't seen the original movies, I'd herldy tell anything was changed. In fact, when I saw the dwarves stealing weapons in Lake Town in your edit, I completely forgot the scenes that took place in-between in the original movies, and though Bard sent them to steal the weapons. I watched the uncut movie again later, and was so surprised. You edited this very well. It follows the book a lot more.

It, of course, is not without flaws (though no movie ever is):

1. I didn't mind the dwarves being chased by goblins throughout the entire story, even though it wasn't in the book. It would have been awkward, cinematically, for the goblins to randomly show up at the end. So I'm glad you kept that in. My REAL problem with it is that Azog is supposed to be dead in the continuity of the book. I always scratched my head at this part of the uncut movie. I thought "yeah, it's good to have the goblins start chasing them earlier, but didn't they at least have the leader of the goblins be one that's SUPPOSED to be alive at this point of the story?" I thought it would have worked just as well if they had had Bolg be the goblin after Thorin instead (Bolg is Azog's son, so avenging his father's death could have worked for that character, rather than being mad about a missing hand). But this isn't your fault, as you have to work with what you've got.

2. I would have liked to see the thrush tell Bard about Smaug's weakness, but once again, there's nothing you could do about that.

3. I liked how you digitally edited the liquid gold on Smaug to look like water, as he didn't get covered with gold in this version. However, it still begs the question; how did he get covered with water? (I saw one clip from a fan edit where while Smaug was bursting out of the entrance, they cut away to the dwarves reacting to it, to hide the fact that he had gold on him) However, one can always assume that there was a waterfall in the cave that Smaug had to pass under, so it's not that bad I guess.

4. I actually like to read The Hobbit as a stand-alone story. Yes, LOTR is the sequel to it, but Tolkien didn't originally intend to write a sequel. Even with the revised Gollum chapter, the story still works well standalone. If one wants to read LOTR afterwards, it's their choice. One should be able to enjoy the book on its own, without knowing it will lead to a sequel. In the movies though, they hint that the ring is evil, forcing anybody that hasn't seen LOTR to watch that afterwards, rather than enjoying The Hobbit by itself. I kind of wish you had cut these hints from your fanedit, as it would have brought it closer to the spirit of the book by making it stand on its own. But, to be fair, the animated version has the same flaw, so I'd be hypocritical if I said it ruins the movie.

Those are the only problems I had. You did such a good job! I will recommend this to people who have read the book.

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Dustin

9/2/2016 06:34:45 am

Thanks for the message! I really wish they had done the Azog/Bolg storyline the way you've described...and sort of how it was in the book. We could still get a flashback to the Battle of Moria, in which Azog kills Thror, then Thorin kills Azog with Bolg swearing revenge. I recall reading about how Peter Jackson originally had a human actor in prosthetics for Bolg and was actually going to follow that subplot, until production troubles and the expansion to three films forced him to do some recasting and character shuffling. What a shame.

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Ayn

9/21/2016 10:23:15 am

FYI, you might be interested in a discussion going on about your edit at JW fan.

This is news to me, thanks! A John Williams fan site of all places too. I'll have to make an account and jump in the discussion!

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Eric Odmyr

12/17/2016 04:54:07 am

Wow, awesome to see the disc art I made on actual discs and how well they go with the other discs! And the 8-disc cover is a brilliant idea - beautiful!

When I sent you that disc art you offered to send me actual physical copies of the Blurays as a thanks for making them. You also promised to send actual physical copies "as a reward for this time-consuming task" to everyone who helped with the translations (I made the Swedish one).
I understand the reason why the translations didn't end up on the ISO's, but it was still a ton of work for us translators to make them, and you did end up putting them all on your downloads page. So I'm wondering, whatever happened to your promise of a reward for our hard work?

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Dustin

12/21/2016 06:18:17 am

Eric, I am SO sorry that I must have overlooked the delivery of your physical copy. Can you please send me an email with your address attached to it? I do appreciate all the work you and the other translators have done, and I'm sorry for the oversight.

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Eric Odmyr

12/21/2016 05:25:10 pm

No worries, Dustin! I hope it didn't come off as me accusing you of "ripping us off", or something. It was a voluntary task after all, and I would have done it anyway. I was just a bit surprised and confused by you promising something like that to a lot of people and then not following through with it in the end. You certainly don't seem like a person who would do something like that, so I felt I had to ask. And as it turns out it was just an oversight from your side there are definitely no hard feelings at all. Quite the opposite - I still feel extremely thankful that you saved the Hobbit trilogy trainwreck for all of us and made it into quite an enjoyable viewing experience. Anyway - enough rambling! I'll send you an email with my address. Thanks a lot, and have a great christmas and a happy new year!

Jeff O

12/15/2019 03:08:19 am

Dustin, I would really appreciate a subtitle file. Because modern films have forgotten the principle purpose of having a 'Talkie' in the first place they relegate dialog audio levels to that of highly-variable sound effects. This forces the viewer, especially those interested in preserving their hearing and high-end audio equipment to constantly adjust the volume levels to hear muttered, mumbled (another problem on actors' part) and muffled lines. The alternative in on-the-fly Audio Compression is equally disatisfactory as is washes out the sound effects and score themselves. Please do let us know if that would be possible and thank you in advance if you are able to! -Jeff O